After Xie Zhuo arrived in the city, he found a new place to park his bicycle instead of the previous one.

He was very careful on his way to Lao He's place, after all, neither eloping with his family nor fleeing with his family were part of his plans.

He was indeed a little flustered that day and didn't think things through.

This morning, while he was with Chen Lihua and Xu Cangsong in the mountains, he pondered it carefully again.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that his hurried return home that day, which startled Xu Yan, was simply unbelievable and showed a complete lack of composure.

Old He did even worse things in his past life than he has in this one, and he still wasn't caught. In this life, he hasn't done anything yet, and with his background, why would he wait for someone to catch him?

They probably fled as soon as there was the slightest disturbance.

Xie Zhu walked around the alley two or three times to make sure no one was following him before heading towards Old He's house.

However, this time it took Lao He a long time to open the door, so long that Xie Zhuo began to wonder if he had misunderstood something before he finally came to open the door.

I wasn't very surprised to see that he hadn't brought anything with him.

"What's wrong?" Xie Zhuo asked, noticing his strange expression.

Old He waved to him and said, "Come inside first."

Xie Zhu frowned and followed him into the house.

Once inside, they found about ten people standing in the small room. They didn't look like they were from around here; each of them had a blank expression and looked like they were trained martial artists.

People living in this era would probably rarely see this kind of attire; at first glance, something seems off.

Who would dress like that?

Isn't this just like the Hong Kong gangsters depicted in later TV dramas and movies?

Xie Zhuo glanced at Lao He again without making a sound.

He originally thought Lao He was just a businessman, but he didn't expect that he also had connections with gangs in Hong Kong.

"Brother Xie is here."

When someone suddenly spoke up, Xie Zhuo realized that Mr. Zhang was also there, but he had been sitting in the corner, so Xie Zhuo hadn't noticed him at first glance.

“Mr. Zhang,” Xie Zhuo greeted him.

Old Mr. Zhang stared at him for a long time, then glanced at the people standing in the room, and finally smiled, "Young Brother Xie is still so interesting."

Xie Zhuo raised an eyebrow.

"Don't stand, sit down," Old He walked over and patted Xie Zhuo on the shoulder.

Xie Zhuo found a chair and sat down.

"Did you come over yesterday?" Old He asked.

"Yes," Xie Zhuo nodded and briefly recounted what happened yesterday. "I felt something was wrong, so I went home first."

"Damn it," Old He suddenly cursed, "I knew those bastards would pull this stunt. You know, you even told me to check things out."

Xie Zhuo didn't understand what he meant, and his gaze shifted slightly towards Mr. Zhang.

Mr. Zhang didn't look too well either.

After a while, he suddenly turned his head and said a few words to the people around him in the local dialect of Hong Kong. The people around him replied in the local dialect of Hong Kong.

Xie Zhuo didn't understand, he just glanced in their direction and then lowered his head to drink water.

When he looked up again, Mr. Zhang had already finished speaking and was looking at him.

Xie Zhuo also put down his cup and looked at him.

"Young Master Xie is truly a remarkable person," Old Mr. Zhang said, offering a seemingly random compliment.

Xie Zhuo twitched the corner of his mouth, pretending not to understand, "The older generation in our Qingping County also speaks a dialect, but now they mostly speak Mandarin."

Mr. Zhang didn't say much, just smiled.

Then, speaking to Lao He in the local dialect, he said, "Where did you find such a young man? I like him. He's sensible and doesn't talk much. Most importantly, he's steady. Even if he's surprised when he sees something, he doesn't show it on his face."

Old He replied in the same Hong Kong dialect, "I can tell you like it. You already praised it when I took the money last time."

"Sixty-five thousand without batting an eye," said Mr. Zhang. "He's someone who can achieve great things."

Xie Zhuo was unaware that they were talking about him. Just as he was about to get another glass of water, Lao He called out to him.

"You came here to find out who that person was last time, right?" Old He asked.

“Yes,” Xie Zhuo nodded.

“They’re from the port city too,” Old He said with a hint of disgust. “They know we got our hands on a century-old wild ginseng, so they want to come and find it too.”

Xie Zhuo finally understood.

Seeing Xie Zhuo's expression, Lao He continued, "Don't worry, this matter won't affect you. I guess he'll just see you one day and want to strike up a conversation to ask where the ginseng was dug up."

"If I contact you again, just say you don't know anything. I won't reveal you to anyone else. Don't worry, you don't need to worry about my character."

“If I weren’t worried, I wouldn’t have come here today,” Xie Zhuo said.

“That’s right,” Old He laughed. “We’ve known each other for a long time. Even if something happens to me, don’t worry, you won’t be in any trouble.”

Xie Zhuo looked at him without saying anything.

After a while, he picked up the kettle on the table, poured some water into his own cup, then took another one, poured water into it, and pushed it towards Lao He.

Old He picked it up.

Xie Zhu touched his glass to his, "I'll use water instead of wine."

Old He chuckled, "At least others use tea instead, but you use water."

"The kettle is yours," Xie Zhuo said, tilting his head back to fill the water bottle.

"Okay, okay," Old He said, downing his drink in a few gulps.

Then he looked at Xie Zhuo again, "What, getting drunk today?"

Xie Zhuo looked at him.

"Damn," Old He said, looking at him, "can you ever find a free moment?"

"Next time," Xie Zhuo said, "There's something going on at home recently..."

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